Guestbook (2006-2010)

Ira, this is truly a great stroll down memory lane! I am going to see if I have some old TRS-80 commercials for you in my stash of stuff! I never had a TRS-80, but I did have an old old old old old Atari computer system that would make me stay up to all hours writing programs for. I subscribed to PC Magazine just for the Basic program codes they would publish. And my parents wondered why I wanted to name my cat “Syntax Error”. hahahaha

Recently had to repair my TRS-80 and some memory chips were damaged due to overvoltage. Bought item number 310135836860 at ebay – 10 memory chips. They work fine in my Model 1. Good price for a hard-to-find item.

Enjoyed this site.. It reminds me of the FUN days I had with my COCO’s. I ran a Teletype (RTTY)Ham Radio mailbox system for about 5 years using a COCO. My COCO’s did a LOT more than justrunning a terminal unit using its 232 port. I also turned items on and off like RF amps, printersand even changed freq’s on the radio. Those UHART chips were very easy to tap into and use thierlogic highs and lows as on/off switches to toggle transistor relays.

I have NEVER had that much fun with ANY computers after I stopped using COCO’s. It was great fundesigning your own projects using the COCO. I even designed a complete air tight wood burningfire place control system. Might call it the first PLC computer that’s used today on allmachines. That was in use for six years.

hello, ive got a model 4 trs-80when i start it the screen is only displaying a big green square and nothing else is happening… does someone have a idea of what could be wrong with the machine. plz email me if you have some usefull information

Thanks for keeping the memories alive. I used to repair a lot of model III systems by swapping power supplies and floppy drives. When the machines worked and the customer was satisfied- then the suppies were repaired for the next one. I still have some of the old floppies and model 1 stuff lying about. I also have a few hundred CPM 8″ floppies and a complete model 100 system. If there are any members of the Twin City Tandy User’s Group ( Minneapolis, Mn. ) about, they may want to contact me to chat about the old times. For the amateur radio operators,73. For collectors, does anyone else remember the Lobo-80 or hombuiltexpansion interfaces from green boards made in California? I have %26 do.

Fantastic site – what a blast from the past! – I never owned a model III, but a couple of my friends had them. Remember Dancing Demon? !!! I later started collecting from e-Bay – magic machines. Cheers and keep up the good work

Hi, I was really surprised to see such an amount of TRS-80 related articles, stories, hints etc.I really appreciate such an effort, my own web site at http://www.z80.eu has to grow for years until I reach a similar diversity.But I have also a question … is it possible to download some of the shown CP/M books ? I’ve seen no link for it, but a size for every book was mentioned …

Regardless of my question, I will recommend your site now also on my pages (I am not sure why I have not seen your site before…).

I worked at Tandy Computer Assembly in San Antonio from 1983-84 where the Model IV’s were being built.Pay was lousy but learned invaluable troubleshooting skills that still pay off to this day.A year or two later I came back to SA to visit, most of the plant was layed off and the few remaining folkswere building the COCO in a tiny assembly line area in the center of this giant empty room. It was weird.I remember the 83 Christmas rush preparation; we were working 12’s and never saw the sun for weeks on end.Have not been able to find any of my former co-workers save one modem repair technician from the back room…

I cleaned out the shed and found the IV. It loaded, but I have some fixing to do.I have ALL the keys removed from the alps keyboard! Snap them apart and rotate the rubber thingie put it back together! I did this once before on a old III, so I know it works.

Then I can figure out what disks I have, and re-learn how to run this thing.

I used to own a trs-80 Model I and loved playing this game. has anyone out there got a disk image/cas image for this game. I can’t find it on the web, unless you know where I can download it from??Looking forward to hearing from other ‘old geeks’ like me

I love using the emulator software, it takes me back to my youth but I can’t help feeling that there’s something missing. It would surely be more accurate if closing the emulator with a disk image loaded destroyed the disk? And isn’t there some way to emulate bad soldering? (I had a Video Genie) Oh and maybe the display isn’t blurry enough. No, really I do love the emulator, it’s a fine program. I learnt a lot on my old Genie, I probably used it nearly as much as I’ve now used PC’s. It’s interesting to see how fondly this machine is remembered by everyone, as it should be.

I’m one of the original staff authors and programmers for SoftSide magazine… I’d love to tell you some of the stories of what went on behind the scenes. I am currently trying to look up all the old staff and have a reunion so if you know where any of them are, drop me a line. Those were the days… BTW, the name change was becuase I went on to become a professional musician before returning to software design.

I was the proud owner at 12 years old of a trs-80 model I leve II 16k. I spent many an hour typing in games from Softside magazine..such as round the horn and my fav Santa Paravia. A very good lesson in debugging.lol. One can never forget the days of the Scott Adams adventures and then of course ZORK…..Long ago days that will never leave my memories…cheers to all you adventurers

Memories indeed. As a radio Ham I wrote up a morse code program in edit assy, some 25 pages of script It worked extremely well interfaced using the audio out through a bridge rectifier and used the resultant DC pulses to key the transmitter via a relay Cct. Innovative Technology now lost in time. My son has just advised me he has a color TRS80 for free at his workplace, may grab it for historical purposes.

Thanks for the stroll down memory lane! It brings back alot of memories of the good times.

Personal message to an old friend that may see this site:

Eric Hacker, if you read this, I haven’t heard from you for a long time, please email me at the address above, or call me on my cell, I’m still working for the same company (8 yrs now) and my cell number is still the same.

I just acquired a Model III TRS-80 w/ Printer and accessories, it had not been covered and is extremely dusty…what is the best way to clean one of these rigs up?, I’m think Electronics motor cleaner in the aerosol can will do justice, also will be selling this rig too…

I found it weird when looking on the internet that a Don French would take claim to the TRS-80 computer that was actually built by Steve Leininger. Don French was just a buyer, he did not build the computer. It’s pathetic to see people try to claim what isn’t truly theirs.

I was 10 when trs80 mod I was released and few month later a tandy shop opened in my area (south belgium) i had luck as the shop keeper let me spend all my free time in his shop (he said i was the best advertisement for the computers).At that time i spent most of my pocket money to buy books that i read home and i ran to the shop to try things, as time passed by i whitnessed (and tested) mod II III to the color mod.years are passing by, but now i have memories of the magical moments i spent there.Thou now computers are far beyond technically, i seem not to find back the thrill the trs80 brought me.

With much help of Ira i got from the TRS80-floppy-files the emulator-images (.DSK, .DMK). Perfekt, what Ira does.I tested these emulator-imageswith Matthew Reed´s Emulator, with Tim Mann´s XTRS under LINUX and with David Keil´s Emulator. At the moment there are noproblems (at the moment i don´t have the time to test all emulators that are available).

Background: my father began writing programs with his TRS-80 in 1980, and he works with this computer up to now, every day:produce production-lists for our joinery (windows, doors, stairs) and administration of our houses (settlement). Butthe very old TRS-80 makes problems more and more, and now the situation is so: if the old TRS-80 “dies”, my father can continue with the emulators. For my father it would be too hard to learn an new programming-language, he knows perfekthis TRS-80-BASIC and NEWDOS-80. This Basic and Newdos have enought to make all.

Thank you Ira. And thanks to the people that program and support the emulators.

I bought my first Mod I in 1979,bought a few programs, traded for a bunch of prograns and eventually upgraded to the full Monty. Expansion interface, dual floppies, 300 baud modem, the works. I was a techie, so i eventually got around to modifying that machine greatly, putting lower case into it, speeding it up (too Much at one point). It was a great little machine, but a pain when i was moving aroud state to state. Never failed me though, I eventually traded it off for a model three. which i still have. but the monitor circuitry failed last year and i havent fixed it yet. I do have a lot of software and manuals for the model three, and might even have the stuff for the model one. I have actually built a wire wrap version of the model one also, but used a small tv for a monitor..Never did an audio mod, but did put a radio nearby occasionally. At one point, i owned 3 other mod ones and 5 mod 3’s. traded them all off eventually except for the one Mod III i have now. It is 48k dualsided floppy’s with everything. even has a 1200baud modem. I’d like to design and build it up to 10 Mhz eventually and put a 56k modem mod on. but it’s more of a toy now thatn a useable machine. Anyway, “LONG LIVE the MOD I/III!!!

I was with Radio Shack from 1974 through 1978. I started as a part-time salesperson in Ellicot City and later was manager of two different stores in the Baltimore area (Severna Park and then Columbia Mall), and then helped open and manage a new warehouse near Charleston, SC. I remember very clearly being in the audience at the regional store manager’s gathering in Philadelphia in August 1977 when the upcoming new products were being introduced. I remember the presenter (I think it was Bernie Appell) saying enthusiastically that we were going to be introducing a COMUPTER — and several hundred store mangers sitting there thinking “we’re getting a WHAT???” Of course, sales were far better than any of us expected that day.

In this site’s page about the Model I it says “The Model I was discontinued in January of 1981 due to its failure to meet the FCC’s Radio Frequency Interference rules.” In the stores, we had turned that into an advantage. The Model I did not have any audio capability, but we found that an AM radio placed next to the case would create wonderful sound effects, especially for space warfare games. It was great for arousing interest in kids.

I remember hearing that the silver color was because the group building it got a special price on a lot of the silver paint used on the Chevrolet Corvette. But I don’t have any verification of that.

I remember when the 5 MB hard drive (26-4130) came out. I was fortunate to have one customer buy two of them. We joked that one would be for all the programs ever written and the other would be for all the data ever recorded. Neither of us realized the exponential growth that would start a few years later …

I still have my TRS-80 Model I Level II (16K) along with the peripherals and just about every piece of software (cassettes) and documentation/books that were available at the time I purchased it. It has all been boxed and stored for almost 30 years. I think this summer I will pull it all out and see if it will fire up! Any do’s or don’t ‘s would be appreciated.

Heya Ira! Just dropped by to see what I havent downloaded lately..lol…You’re doing an excellent job and a real service to the community, I’ve actually named my model 1 after you! The model 3’s still crankin out a game of defense command every now and then and sits in the living room. You should’ve seen the satelite internet guys face when he saw it, I told him I wanted internet on that! He said, “what is that?” hehe kids….Anyways, take care and keep the faith!~momo

I’m a youngster from Sweden who is fashinated by the Z80 CPU and want to create a littlesystem based on the Z80. I think a need a good assembler as well as doing some assemblingby hand, just for learning about the different techniques. I’m doing the hole thing as anexaminationwork of my school, not only for fun and comfort during my amtempts to find out of thehole thing… So, good folks! Thanks a lot and have a nice day!

This site is wonderful. How I cherised those Radio Shack computer catalogs! I came into TRS-80’s when they were new and I was 13, so I can be really nostalgic about them now. My second job was programming BASIC- and that version of it is simply a beautiful bit of programming. I still have burned into my head the line editor commands even though I haven’t used them for 21 years now- and it probably would be frustrating to use if I had to go back to it. Once again, great site and thanks for the memories.

I just get my EG3003 from e-bay this weekend (I had one in the 80’s).I found some old tapes (%3E20 years) put one in the build-in cassette recorder and it could be loaded !!!Try this with a CD or DVD after so many years ?!

I have several 8 in. drive machines available for free in Western WA State for pickup. I am not interested in shipping them. Also quite a bit of original software for them. These were working machines when last used in the mid 90’s and we have a couple of parts machines available too. Happy new Year, S. Marshall

I now have 4 Dell machines … this is being done on an Inspiron8600 laptop with all the bells and whistles and USB cables threading through it to various peripherals. But I keep a really warm spot in my heart for my original, first computer. My TRS80-Model III. Two disk drives, 48K RAM and I had to program most of the things I needed for business myself. I used BASIC and even had a COBOL compiler. But best of all was my 300 Baud modem. What speed !!! What speed?? LOL !!

I was really happy to stumble on this site. I can’t seem to find anyone else here who can remember a computer without any hard drive at all.

Now I have to read what the rest have to say. Thanks for being here !! Eileen

I have a TRS-80 Model I serial number 000034A. The motherboard has some manual patches to it, so I assume it’s some sort of prototype.

It’s not been fired up for years, last time I tried it booted OK but basic was a bit AWOL (it’s in an EPROM rather than a ROM I seem to recall, and time has taken it’s toll)

I’ve had this machine since I was a teenager (I’m 46 now!), I bought it from a DEC engineer when I first started work.

I’d love to get it going again. Anybody in UK that can help me?

I’ve also got the expansion unit, 2x 80K floppy disk drives and the ‘graphics’ box which gives you character mapped graphics. I had a printer somewhere (the one that worked like a plotter with mini ball point pens) but I don’t hold out much hope of finding that, after moving house 8 or 9 times since!

What a joy to find so many of the old issues of 80 Micro archived here. During its final year, I had the privilege of working as its managing editor, along with a brilliant cast of unforgettable characters. Thanks for keeping this venerable grande dame alive.

I don’t remember the date, but I still remember sitting in Harold Mauch’s office at Percom Data Company in Garland, Texas. Hal had been working on a way to do double density floppy I/O on the TRS-80 Model I. The data was read in a polling loop, and it took just a few too many clock cycles to read double density. I worked out a different kind of loop that looked like it would work, at least on paper. We worked up a test system, using an 8″ floppy as the double-density source, and were able to successfully read and write data. Hal worked up a board that plugged into the disk controller chip socket. His engineer Wayne Smith worked out the logic to switch between the single density and the double density controller chips, and the “Percom Doubler” was born. A few months later I worked out the patches for NewDos, and partnered with Russell Lynne to market it as the “Double Zap.”

A few years later, when the TRS-80 Model IV was released, I wrote a CP/M BIOS for John Lancione at Montezuma Micro, and thousands of copies of Montezuma Micro CP/M were sold. I also worked up an early desk utility pop-up program called “Monte’s Window.” Around that time I also did a little writing for Charlie Butler, publisher of “The Alternate Source” in Lansing, Michigan. I did an advice column under the pen name of Jesse Bob Overholt.

Those were wild and crazy days, and we had an awful lot of fun. I’ll be forever grateful to Hal, who convinced me to quit my “Dilbert” corporate job, and start my own business. These days I don’t do nearly as much software as I did back then, and it’s nice to remember the “players” from the old days. Thanks for keeping the memories alive. After 5 moves, I no longer have anything left from that time.

I worked for Tandy/Radio Shack from 1981 to 1984 in their downtown Fort Worth corporate head quarters. I did a lot of work with the Model II %26 16. I have such good memories of those days. Recently I went back to Fort Worth for a visit and was saddened to see the corporate office lying derelict and the train from the parking lot no longer runs. Very sad but I suppose that’s progress.

Your site is a real trip down memory lane. I was a Radio Shack employee starting in 1969 and moved up through the ranks from salesperson, store manager, manager of one of their computer stores, regional manager, buyer, Manager of the Computer Buyers and ultimately one of the founders of their Computer City business. I helped put together several of the catalogs you feature here, traveled to the far east to look at products to add to the line, etc. Some fond memories:1. I was in the room during a showdown between Bill Gates and Bernie Appel about the pricing for an MS-DOS upgrade. Other stores were selling the upgrade for a lower price than we were buying it for from Microsoft. Bernie was demanding that Bill do something about it. When he refused, Bernie picked up the phone and called store operations with instructions to send a message out to all 4,000+ Radio Shack stores that they were to go to every competitor in their area with petty cash money and buy every copy of MS-DOS they could. My recollection is that Bill backed down.2. I got to meet and negotiate with Scott Cook, the founder of Intuit/Quicken and Steve Case, the founder of AOL.

It was all great fun. Joe Sigler, I know were you are. Dick Brown, Tom Palmquist, Jimmy Ditucci, Bob MacQuigg, David Frager, LaDonna Womochel, Bill Wilson, where are you guys?!!

Windowpad was one of the programs I wrote for the TRS-80. You would never believe the story and history surrounding that program. Go to my web site and read the Hot News Section. I’ll give you one guest who is trying to shout it down. Tell everyone I said Hi, and keep the excellent work up.

Important Note:

Do you have TRS-80 Disks or Tapes?

If you have Model I, III or 4 TRS-80 disks lying around, you may want to think about sending them in. If the data is intact, I can read them into “virtual disk files” (DMK files) which will serve not only to archive the disk forever, but would also allow you to use those virtual disks in an emulator on your current computer, and to extract the data to your current computer if you wanted to.

The media on these disks and tapes were not intended to hold data for 35+ years and the data will not last forever. If you do have disks lying around, I would encourage you to contact me.